Singapore this month launched a pilot scheme that pays citizens for logging time spent reading on a government website, part of an effort to address what officials describe as a decline in reading habits.
How the programme works
Under the initiative participants must register and log reading sessions; only one session can be recorded per day and each logged session must last at least 15 minutes. Accumulate 50 qualifying sessions and the reward is one Singapore dollar (roughly £0.59). The payments are deliberately small and the programme functions as a behavioural incentive rather than a direct subsidy for books or subscriptions.
Expert perspectives
Behavioural scientists and psychologists contacted by the Guardian, including Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, said modest financial rewards can sometimes help people establish new routines. They framed the Singapore scheme as a form of ‘nudge’ — a low-cost intervention designed to change behaviour by altering incentives and making the desired action easier to do.
Those experts warned, however, that short-term incentives do not automatically produce lasting change. For a habit such as regular reading to stick, incentives typically need to be combined with other supports — easy access to engaging material, social reinforcement, and a context that reduces friction, like designated reading time or fewer competing distractions.
Limitations and the bigger picture
Critics and analysts may point to the scheme’s modest pay and the one-session-per-day cap as constraints on its potential impact. The payments are unlikely to attract people who do not already have some interest in reading; instead, the scheme seems designed to reinforce and stabilise behaviour among those who might need a small push to read more consistently.
Singapore’s move adds to a growing roster of behavioural interventions used by governments worldwide to try to shift daily habits. Whether this particular model will produce measurable improvements in literacy or long-term reading frequency remains to be seen; officials and researchers will need to track participation rates and follow up on whether reading persists once the incentive ends.